gxv140 Rebuild Question - do I go further?

[bertsmobile1]

I do not think the GXV (vertical shaft, lawn mower engines) in the HR215 had a dipper on the connecting rod cap. A dipper was usually included on horizontal-shaft engines (pressure washers, reel mowers, generators, etc.) This is not a 100% hard & fast rule. I have seen some mower engines that do indeed have a dipper, but it was included to reduce overall costs, by sharing the same connecting rod cap as a horizontal-shaft engine.

Well you are the bloke who would know.
It is a testiment to the quality of the Honda engines that I rarely have to dive deep inside.
In tha past 4 years the only Honda work I have done a lot of is cleaning the crud out of the carbs and replacing main jets and fuel bowls devoid of the zinc plating.
This is of course apart from general service & tuning.
Not had a single failure requireing splitting the cases.

OTOH that rod is definatlely cooked and cooked from the journal up not from the piston down which is what too high octane gas / running lean would do.
Will you show the pickies to the tech Gurus for a more authorative opinion than mine ?

 

[KC_kid]

I would feel more comfortable buying a new piston and boring it (if needed) if I could verify why it had such an overheating problem. I don't want that to continue if I rebuild it. If you read my other thread on that topic, I tried everything I could think of. We have Kansas heat but its only about an hours worth of mowing and nothing to strenuous for the mower. I almost always mulch.

I agree, the bottom of the motor looks like it got much hotter than the top. I replaced all of the carb gaskets and remember searching that area for leaks. I'm stumped on the overheating, which is what caused all of this. Here is the oil pan:

 

[KC_kid]

Interesting question... I see a Harmony 215 on craigslist with a gxv140 and 2 speed trans... could I buy this and throw the gxv140 onto my mower?? Not sure of exact model number of harmony, I have not contacted them yet.

 

[bertsmobile1]

The mounting holes will be on the same centers, that is consistant across the entire range however things like clutches make life interesting.
Also the auxillary drives need to be the same, some are shafts, some ae belts.
Not being an authorised Honda repairer I can be no he;p on that matter.

 

[KC_kid]

The mounting holes will be on the same centers, that is consistant across the entire range however things like clutches make life interesting.
Also the auxillary drives need to be the same, some are shafts, some ae belts.
Not being an authorised Honda repairer I can be no he;p on that matter.

looks like the drive is different I think, mine is shaft driven and the harmony series is belt

 

[robert@honda]

looks like the drive is different I think, mine is shaft driven and the harmony series is belt

That's correct; all Harmony, Harmony II, HRR, HRS, and HRX models with self-propell use a drive belt. Early Harmony models had GXV engines, while most mowers made in the last 15 years have a GCV160 / GCV190 engines

Early HR, Masters, and self-propelled HRC are shaft-drive. and all are fitted with a GXV engine.

 

[KC_kid]

Could overfilling the oil be the cause of this damage? I bought a used HRX217 with the GCV190 and when adding oil it says to not screw down the dipstick while measuring the oil level. I think with my GXV140 I would screw the dipstick down when checking oil level... could this have caused overfill and led to this damage?

FYI I bagged and tagged all the engine parts and sold the whole mower & engine on craigslist for $40. The guy had a GXV140 and reused the rest of my mower, kept the engine for parts. I then picked up a HRX217HXA K2 for $100 and cleaned it up real good. Looks to be in good shape so far, haven't really used it yet.

 

[KC_kid]

Could overfilling the oil be the cause of this damage? I bought a used HRX217 with the GCV190 and when adding oil it says to not screw down the dipstick while measuring the oil level. I think with my GXV140 I would screw the dipstick down when checking oil level... could this have caused overfill and led to this damage?

Yep, I checked my old Masters manual and it said to not screw in dipstick when checking fill level... What a total idiot move if I caused this catastrophic damage by overfilling the oil... :ashamed:

 

[bertsmobile1]

No
Overfilling can break rings, blow seals bend rods and even crack heads but your damage was due to excessive heat.
Wy is the big question.
Wrong fuel can not do that sort of damage.